One Chart Shows How The 'Gun Control' Debate Vanished From National Attention

We all know American media is a fickle beast, but a few charts
out of Politico today show that fickleness bordering
on the worst of attention deficit disorder — it may even cross
into a total lack of true substance.

This time was supposed to be different. "It is hard to believe
this will not be a watershed moment when we start to talk about,
deal with and even perhaps legislate on guns," ABC News's Z. Byron Wolf wrote. He was one
among many in the media who believed the momentum for gun control
legislation was strong enough to turn the tide on a familiar
pattern.

No, Santa Claus did not bring 'Gun Control' to America this
Christmas. In fact, according to Byers, he may even have
contributed to its submergence back into the political and media
subconscious.

"Blame it on the fiscal cliff, blame it on Christmas, blame it on
our ability to forget," writes Byers, "but the national
discussion about gun control has once again ebbed."

The bottom line is: If the issue were really one that media and
politicians care about, no holiday or turn-of-the-year
celebration would have torn it out of the public eye.

Check out the chart below, it illustrates the mentions of "gun
control" via the media search tool Nexis. Oddly enough, the big
drop occurred while everyone was busy opening gifts: